Ready or Not
by violetwarnercobalt
Summary: The truth, no matter how odd it may seem, will come out eventually, whether we are Ready for it or Not. written for the 2012 Valentine Tibbs comm at Livejournal.


**Title**: Ready or Not  
**Author**: dinozzoitis aka Violetwarnercobalt aka this_years_me  
**Author's Notes**: Written for the 2012 valentine_tibbs comm at lj.  
**Warning**: Some swearing, a little angst (I promise a happy ending though), some mentions of adult-ness, few spoilers and un-beta'd (though i am pretty sure I caught most of the mistakes, you can get Gibbs or DiNozzo to spank me if I have missed any). Also there may or may not be a line borrowed from a show that had taken over my life at the time of writing this, if you follow me on anything you can probably guess what! lol I think it works though ;D  
**Spoilers**: Some for the 200th ep  
**Characters/Pairings**: Tony/Gibbs  
**Rating**: PG-M just in case  
**Genre/Category**: Slash, Hurt/Comfort, humour, Romance, angst.  
**Word Count**: 1344  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own or am in any way affiliated with those that own NCIS, nor am I connected to the show's cast and crew. This is written out of pure enjoyment and absolutely no money is being made from it's creation. Please do not sue.  
**Summary**: The truth, no matter how odd it may seem, will come out eventually, whether we are Ready for it or Not.

It wouldn't surprise many people, especially not those at NCIS, that Leroy Jethro Gibbs was spending Valentine's Day in his basement sanding his latest skeleton of a boat. What most of his colleagues would find shocking was the fact that Gibbs wasn't alone. More shocking was the fact that office flirt and well known playboy Tony "sex machine" DiNozzo was the person keeping Gibbs company.

Neither man were fans of the supposed holiday, but that wasn't stopping them from spending it together.

While Gibbs was silently and rhythmically sanding one of the beams his younger partner was lying flat on his back underneath the boat one arm draped over his eyes as he hummed a soft melody, the other outstretched, hand clasped on the back of one of Gibbs' muscular thighs, thumb rubbing soothing circles on the tense muscle.

Every so often, when the sandpaper would reach the top of the beam and his arms were stretched above his head, Gibbs would sneak a glance at the man he loved. The barest hint of a smile tweaking the corners of his lips.

It was during one of these brief moments that Gibbs' recent near run in with death popped into his mind. Sighing almost silently, the silver haired man allowed his arms to give from under him, brow dotted with beads of sweat coming to rest on the almost smooth beam.

Tony sensed almost immediately the change in Gibbs, the muscle under his palm tightened slightly, the air in the room becoming a bit tense.

Removing the hand from across his face the Italian looked up at his partner "Something wrong Jet?"

DiNozzo watched as Gibbs sighed again, crossing the short distance between the boat and his work bench, pouring his favourite amber liquid into a mason jar and took a big gulp. The sudden loss of contact sent shivers down Tony's spine, a gnawing feeling in his gut appeared as he watched the older man massage his recently injured shoulder.

"Jet, talk to me, your starting to worry me..."

As Gibbs looked over his shoulder he saw the blind panic quickly spreading across DiNozzo's face.

Moving to sit on the saw horse beside the bench Gibbs sighed for the third time in as many minutes.

"Boss, will ya stop it, can't decide whether all that sighing is a bad thing, or just your sneaky ploy to get me all hot and bothered." The older man knew the humour was forced, he watched his lover's normal shield of class clown fail to lighten the mood.

"Need to break one of my rules... Need to apologize to ya..."

If it hadn't been such a serious look, the terror on Tony's would have been hilarious. The younger man stormed up to his lover and grabbed the slowly aging face between both hands "No, no, NO! Don't you fuckin' dare Gibbs! You never break rule number 6 don't fuckin' go and do it now!"

Gibbs wasn't sure but he could have sworn there were tears welling up in Tony's eyes, it broke his heart to see it. He wasn't sure what DiNozzo's reaction would be, but he knew it was time to tell his lover what he had been shown.

"You, need to know Tony, that if I could go back and give you the life you should have, I would in a heartbeat, if I could go back and save Kate I would... I'm sorry that I can't, I'm sorry that I didn't save her when I had the chance, but most of all I am sorry that you have no idea how happy and perfect your life could have been..."

"Did you hit your head the other day Jethro? 'Cause you aren't making a word of sense" Tony felt the back of the ex-Marine's head, searching for a lump or anything else that could have been the cause of the gibberish that was coming out of Gibbs' mouth.

When Tony couldn't find the lump he was expecting to, returns his hand to the side of Gibbs' face and stares deeply into the crystal blue eyes "Jet, do I need to call Ducky?"

Gibbs fought back the urge to chuckle, for one it wasn't the right time and two, chuckling would give Tony more of a reason to want to call the ME.

Taking a deep breath, the older man knows he can't keep hiding from his lover any longer "Something happened the other day at the café..."

It took him a while but he managed to get out what he had been shown, how if he had managed to see Ari, Kate would have lived, married Tony and have a baby daughter they named in honour of his own precious girl.

After it was all out in the open Tony took a shuddering breath, stepped away from Gibbs, gaping like a fish out of water.

"Now do you see why I had to break rule six? You could have been happy, you could have been truly happy..."

The slap that burned across Gibbs' face was definitely unexpected, the anger radiating off of DiNozzo was the most intense thing he had ever seen.

"Fuck you Gibbs!" Tony spat as Gibbs avoided eye contact "Look at me damn-it!"

When the older man looked up Tony was right in his face.

"Do I wish Kate lived? Hell Yes! Did I love her? I don't fuckin' know! Was it your fault? NO! For the billionth time, THERE. WAS. NOTHING. You could have done!" Tony was panting in frustration, he knew Gibbs still blamed himself for Kate's death, no matter how many times he tried to tell him that it was no one's fault but Ari's.

Moving closer Tony lifted Gibbs chin so they were eye to eye.

"It may sound selfish Jet, but there is only one thing I would give you up for, and having Kate back is not it... They only reason I would ever willingly give you up for is for you to have your girls back, for you, Shannon and Kelly to be a family again."

Tony finally pulled Gibbs into a firm embrace and whispered in his ear "I love you Leroy Jethro Gibbs and there is nothing that could change that, not even an alternate universe where I finally got to sleep with Katie..."

The chuckled from Gibbs warmed Tony's heart and the hug he received from the older man let him know everything was gonna be okay.

Breaking apart the younger man tried to keep the smirk off his face "Two things boss, one, even in death Franks is one hell of a bastard with an odd sense of humour and two... think maybe it is time I cut out the annual DiNozzo Christmas tradition, I think you may have watched 'It's A Wonderful Life' a few too many times!"

They both laughed as Gibbs let DiNozzo pull him up off of the saw horse.

"Still a few hours left of Valentine's Day, DiNozzo, anything you want to do before it becomes the 15th?"

He knew he was in for trouble when a wicked smirk cracked his lover's face in half.

Bouncing on his heels like a four year old DiNozzo clapped his hands together excitedly.

"I know just the thing! You up for a game of naked hide and seek?"

"Always! But no cheating this time DiNozzo, or you might just have to get punished!"

Tony was already at the top of the stairs before Gibbs had even agreed, spinning around he leaned over the banister to pout at his lover.

"Me, cheat?"

"Yes, you cheat! You ALWAYS cheat!"

Gibbs laughed as he heard Tony shout through the house as he ran off "Guess you are just gonna have to spank me like a bad boy then!"

The silver haired fox bounded up the stairs with the energy of a man half his age, flicking the light off as he went past, unbuttoning his shirt with one hand.

"Ready or not, here I come!"


End file.
